My first impression on starting this book was, "oh, goody, a semi historical novel with lots of detail on building the tunnel under Berlin to tap the Russian communication cables. " And so it begins, but then morphs into a much darker tale about guilt and innocence. (I should have known, having read other McEwan books.)
I will spare you what happens to avoid spoilers; most of that is available elsewhere anyway. McEwan's genius his his ability to dig into the subconscious of his characters and root around. What's found is not always pleasant.
To give you a flavor of his ability to use language, I give you this quote from The Guardian on the election of Donald Trump in 2016.
"Charles Darwin could not believe that a kindly God would create a parasitic wasp that injects its eggs into the body of a caterpillar so that the larva may consume the host alive. The ichneumon wasp was a challenge to Darwin’s already diminishing faith. We may share his bewilderment as we contemplate the American body politic and what vile thing now squats within it, waiting to be hatched and begin its meal." *
Brilliant.
*https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/12/ian-mcewan-only-hope-is-that-trump-was-lying-all-along
No comments:
Post a Comment